May you always have enough peace and love

The number of directions that I have in mind to take this post are floating around in my head so fast that I am not sure which one I feel will do this course the most justice. So I'm going to ignore them all and try to go with a stream of consciousness style posting and see where that gets me.

I met with my host teacher and the department leader for my student teaching. As we were talking, my host teacher told me "We were told to incorporate writing, so I have one writing assignment every trimester, and we go into the computer lab...." My heart sank. One assignment is being considered acceptable writing instruction. What a difference a semester has made for me in being able to recognize literacy instruction in all its forms. Admittedly, I still do not feel that my confidence in my vocabulary instruction is as strong as I want it to be. But there are things that some of us have to learn through experience. Vocabulary instruction is where I am going to have to experience my way through gaining comfort and confidence in my teaching ability. Writing instruction though, is not where I am feeling that I will be struggling. There are so many options to use writing more in science. Giving the students the opportunity to write anything, not just one proper English style report a semester is necessary. Not only to teach students my content material, but to teach them how to be contributing people. As more than one of my teachers has told me, "I don't teach science, I teach people. I teach people by teaching them science."
I love biology, I love science, I love my content material that I enjoyed (yes, enjoyed) learning for all these semesters. Yet for all the time future teachers spend in school learning their content, and how to teach their content, I feel not enough focus is placed on the Intended Learning Outcomes. These ILO's are the big picture that our students are supposed to walk out of our classrooms having accomplished and remember. I hate to use a quote of this length in my blog, but I feel it gets the point I am trying to make across so well. In the Utah State Biology Core is a section titled "The Most Important Goal."

The Most Important Goal
 Science instruction should cultivate and build on students’ curiosity and sense of wonder. Effective science instruction engages students in enjoyable learning experiences. Science instruction should be as thrilling an experience for a student as opening a rock and seeing a fossil,tracing and interpreting a pedigree, or observing the affects of some chemical on the heartbeat of daphnia. Science is not just for those who have traditionally succeeded in the subject, and it is not just for those who will choose science-related careers. In a world of rapidly expanding knowledge and technology, all students must gain the skills they will need to understand and function responsibly and successfully in the world. The Core provides skills in a context that enables students to experience the joy of doing science.

What skill is more vital to "understand and function responsibly and successfully in the world" than literacy, reading, and writing?

There is a madness to my methods, and the governor's office awarded me for it! (Affective Dimensions of Reading)

I won't try to fool anybody into believing that I don't have the time to read. I do. If I have time to watch a TV episode on my computer before bed, or have time to spend programming Christmas lights, I have time to read. But I don't read, or at least I don't read for enjoyment very frequently. Lack of time is my reason though, I don't have time to enjoy reading. Oh sure I could read for fifteen minutes or so, but that isn't enough time for me to really enjoy what I am reading. Right when I would start to be sinking into what I am reading, times up. I can't deal with that! When I read for enjoyment I want to sit down somewhere comfortable, and absorb the words. So mostly my reading comes when I am on a plane, on a road-trip (is somehow I am lucky enough to not be driving), or while camping. Situations where I can be guiltless for the time I am spending with my nose in a book.
When I was a child you could not tear me away from books. In that aspect I was like Brick in the TV show "The Middle". I was always reading everything. In kindergarten I would be in the back reading a book while the teacher was helping the class learn what sounds the different letters make. I didn't know the alphabet song, but I could read an entire book. Just as Shae had her flashlights confiscated after lights out at bedtime, so did I. Dad would get mad at me for trying to read by flashlight in the back of the station wagon (GASP! No seat belts!).
In later grades when the entire class was reading a book together out-loud I would get in trouble for reading ahead because I couldn't stand reading as slowly as the rest of the class because I would lose comprehension reading that slow. Something changed though. I cannot say that I blame reading assignments in later school years as a reason for my change of reading habits, I still enjoyed reading during those years. I have to say that my responsibilities changed. No longer was I only accountable for waking up on time, doing my homework then washing the dishes. I had to get a job, start taking care of a house, fix my car, meet social and church obligations, something about dating, etc. Are these excuses to not read? I can't say with a clear conscious that they completely are, instead I have let these other activities take a higher position of urgency than personal reading.
Where does this all fit in with my future classroom? I have to find ways to get my students to want to read about science and biology. On the surface these are high demands, but I feel it is an achievable goal. Lots of young adults fondly remember Bill Nye the Science Guy, and the Magic School Bus. Mythbusters is an extremely popular television show. Science can be fun and popular! Finding texts that they can find entertaining, or relevant to their own lives can increase their desire to read. Even if it has to be an assigned reading, the opposition can be decreased by making the readings as appealing as possible. Because students will be in my classroom at different reading levels, I don't have to assign the same texts to all my students. By adjusting the texts assigned as best I can to match a students reading ability, I can hopefully improve the way they perceive themselves as a reader, improving as the school year goes on. When I was a reading tutor I learned that the best way to improve a student's reading skill was to use texts that they found interesting. I was able to see each of my students realize on their own their increased ability to read. They saw their own skills improve, which excited them and led them to seek out more texts for our tutoring sessions.

Something something home something school (Connecting School and Home Experiences)

Much of who I am I owe to my grandmother. She was always there for me growing up. I was lucky enough to have a relationship with her that was just as special as my relationship with my mother. Perhaps she is the biggest influence in why I chose to become a teacher, as she taught grade school herself. I remember riding my bike over to the school where she taught so that I could just talk with her about whatever was on our minds that day, she always had time for me. Life gave me the gift of being the grandchild that knew her best, and spent the most time with her. During summer vacations when she would go to visit her children and grandchildren spread across the country, I was her traveling companion. When my brother and I were causing mischief in our teen years, she patched my brother's new shorts and didn't report to mom when we came to her asking for her confidential assistance. (Note, attempts to launch illegal fireworks from a moving vehicle should not be attempted by three teenage boys.)

One of the greatest gifts that my grandmother gave me was the gift of reading. Because of her I was reading complete books with full comprehension before I was four. Birthday gifts almost always included a book, and Christmas gifts always included a magazine subscription. The magazines were Big Backyard when I was very young, then I started getting Ranger Rick, and as I moved into jr. high I received 3-2-1 Contact. These magazines were some of the biggest influences on my love of nature, biology, and science. Each one would be read multiple times while eagerly awaiting the following month's mailing. I remember taking one of my Ranger Rick magazines to show-and-tell one week in kindergarten (it had a Tyrannosaurus-Rex on the cover, but my favorite article in that issue was the one about Brontosaurus).



There is much more of my youth that has shaped who I am and my decision to teach. My dad was a fireman and a mechanic, both worlds which I was deeply immersed in on an almost daily level. For me science has an appeal that cannot be met by other disciplines. Although I may not have chosen to pursue these other avenues on a professional level they have shaped and influenced who I am today, and that is something that I have to remember about my students as well. They have many influences in their lives that they bring to the classroom. While biology may not be their preferred subject, they still have knowledge that they can contribute. As I said in an earlier post, so many other areas of knowledge are part of understanding biology. Assisting my students to make the connections with what they already know to what I am teaching in my classroom, can reinforce their interest and increase their knowledge in their preferred subjects.

But evolution is only a theory! (Discipline-Specific Reading)

An Ode to the Spelling Chequer

Prays the Lord for the spelling chequer
That came with our pea sea!
Mecca mistake and it puts you rite
Its so easy to ewes, you sea.

I never used to no, was it e before eye?
(Four sometimes its eye before e.)
But now I've discovered the quay to success
It's as simple as won, too, free!

Sew watt if you lose a letter or two,
The whirled won't come two an end!
Can't you sea? It's as plane as the knows on yore face
S. Chequer's my very best friend

I've always had trubble with letters that double
"Is it one or to S's?" I'd wine
But now, as I've tolled you this chequer is grate
And its hi thyme you got won, like mine.

—Janet E. Byford 

 Reading is not a simple task! Simple decoding of the symbols isn't so simple. The meaning must be interpreted in order to be fully understood. But for some reason humans have always found a need to make reading difficult. Whether it be the ancient Egyptians using complicated hieroglyphics to prevent the common person from becoming literate and keeping reading and writing to certain classes of the populace, or persons using L337 5p34|< today to keep others from reading their postings, reading has always at some level been intentionally difficult. Not every difficulty is intentional though. Homonyms, while occasionally fun, are an unintentional side effect of how we speak English and have collectively chosen to  put those words into printed text.

Why did I start with what some may argue is an English teachers posting when I am a biology teacher? Because homonyms and other grammatical games take place in scientific texts. Some words have completely different meanings when used in a scientific setting, and others have multiple meanings depending on the discipline. Mole. I have have a mole on my face, I can have a mole in my garden, I can have a mole of iron. Put only those three uses of the word together and there is a mole of iron in the mole on the tail of the mole in my garden. Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo. (Go look that one up! I'll wait.) No I did not choose two (usually) animal words for the sole reason I am a biology teacher. Well, perhaps I did. But I have a theory on that. NO I DON'T! I have a hypothesis. Whoa! 

Scientific writing isn't written with the intention of being difficult. The reason many people find it difficult, is that it is written with the intent of being simple. Simple in science terms. Simple if you know what the intended meaning of the words are. Sadly most of the scientific texts that most people are familiar with are the dry boring texts from when they were in school learning the uses of different words in science. They were only reading the groundwork without having any useful application or interest. It is as if they were taken on a tour of fancy new expensive homes with all the new fun features they want in their dream homes, but they were only shown the foundations before anything else was built on top of it. I don't blame them for finding that boring!

Just as new readers may get frustrated and find reading difficult, so do new readers to scientific writing. Luckily the "cure" for both situations is the same, reading that is relevant to the reader. Something that the student will find interesting and applicable to his/her own life.

And that is something I can hang my hat on. Or would that be......

Some people can't sleep because they have insomnia. I can't sleep because I have the internet. (Digital Literacy)

There is a journalism class on campus that asks students to track all the methods they use to take in media over the course of a month (e.g. internet, radio, reading newspapers/magazines/etc, watching TV/DVD/movies/etc). Alternatively this post is looking at digital literacy, specifically my own use over the course of a week. I found it much less taxing to keep a record of when I wasn't glued to a screen. I love the internet. There, I said it. It's out in the open. I can stay in contact with friends and family. I talk and converse with friends around the country and around the world. I love being able to get whatever music I want whenever I want. I can watch videos on TED. I am addicted to using StumbleUpon to find new sources of information after I get my homework done. I love not having to carry a notepad around with me to write down all the little questions I come up with during the day to look up when I get to the library later in the week, instead I can look them up on my phone wherever I am. I use my TabletPC in class to take my notes without using paper, and to look things up in class to use for homework or contribute to the discussion taking place that moment. Digital technology is in every part of my life and I love it. I know some of the digital texts I want in my classroom, and have new ideas every week of how I intend to use them, and find new ones to use just as often. This digital era is my golden age, and I intend to use it to the greatest possible effect for my students. Recorded lectures for students to have on their MP3 players, Study guides, class notes, "for further study" and more all available to students and their parents on class websites.
But there is the potential danger to my enthusiasm for digital literacy. I fear it may become a crutch. Now that I get answers to questions right away from my phone, I no longer ponder on them for hours or days. My discussions with others about those said questions are gone, which removes the personal insight and opinions of those I interact with and replaces them with the flat text retrieved from the depths of Google.
Fortunately the outlook is not all doom and gloom. I look further into each answer than I did in the past. I take the simple surface information and move on to something else that I didn't know I had questions about. I start with a question about caffeine content in my afternoon soda, and find myself an hour later reading about how to grow poppies in my flowerbeds. The same opportunities exist for students learning by the inquiry method (YAY science teaching!). Their assignment may be to learn about wolves, they are given a starting point and where they end up is as limitless as their imaginations.
Digital technology creates both bridges and gaps in the opportunities for students and teachers to work in the digital medium. These lead me to make conscious decisions about why I am using or leaving out a particular digital technology in each lesson. 

Repetition FTW

So another semester begins and another "introduction" post is required. I get the feeling that a post that says nothing other than "read the first post on the blog" would not meet the desired objectives. So I am making another post of "who I am" and other such ramblings that should appease the needs of the assignment requirements. (I have to find ways to be a "disruptance" outside of scheduled class time as well as in.)

I am a Biology-Composite Teaching major, and am hoping to teach high school biology, but would enjoy teaching Jr. high or middle school as well. I love biology because I feel it is a culmination of all other learning. In order to really know and understand biology it is necessary to understand (at least on some level) chemistry, physics, geology, meteorology, and math. And the more that is known about other subjects such as different languages helps even more. The more you know about other things the better you can know about biology. And within biology there are so many disciplines that can be studied. The options to learn from and dive into deeper are limitless.

I have been a reading tutor in the past. In fact when I was a teenager I was awarded the Governors Youth Volunteer Achievement Award because of the work I had done with my reading tutoring. So teaching and literacy are something that have been part of who I am and what I work for for a majority of my life.


Discretion dictates that I end this post sooner rather than later, or I fear I shall end up writing as J.R.R. Tolkien and continuing to put down words for the sake of seeing my own words in print while failing to say anything of direct relevance and fail to move the story along.

Were we learning the destination or the vehicle driven down the road?

I used a different method to do the assignment because the software programs we were instructed to use were poorly written, buggy, and not what I want on my computer. There are better ways out there to do the objective of the assignment. So I did it in a way that was less hassle, faster, and didn't require installing software on my computer. I still got the video as a .mov to put on blogger, in my view that is objective met.